By MaryEileen Croke

Exalt helps court-involed youth with school and sets them up with paid internships. Griselda said she liked the program at exalt so much that she would do it over if she had the chance. Photo by MaryEileen Croke.

Griselda, 17, was arrested when she was 14. In this audio piece she talks about bad influences in her neighborhood, and how exalt helped her get her life back on track. Her internship was at the New York Center for Juvenile Justice, where she worked on the raise the age campaign. Advocacy groups are trying to raise the age at which a person in New York State can be tried as an adult. Currently, it is 16. New York and North Carolina are the only states where 16-year-olds are tried as adults.